Homeschool Through the Years

My middle son graduated recently.

I have been homeschooling now for 17 years. It seems like just yesterday that my boys looked like this gathered around our small little kitchen table.

My middle son recently graduated from our homeschool - Freedom Academy. We had a very informal ceremony here at our home. His dad spoke. I spoke and then I simply handed him his diploma. It was really that easy, but not.

That moment in time represented the last twelve plus years of his education. He has been the first of our children to never have any "formal" education in a classroom other than our home. Kind of. The last two years he has done dual enrollment with some of our state universities. He did get a chance to sit in an actual college classroom last fall. Not only has he completed his high school education a but he also graduated with 16 college credits already earned. 

Homeschooling has been good for us. When I look back to the reasons why we started, not many have changed. We always wanted to foster better connections with our kids by being the primary influence on them. I think we succeeded well there. My boys are good friends. They actually enjoy spending time with us, which I think is amazing given many relationships I see. 

I'm not writing this post to be a "look at our success!" kind of deal. I'm just a homeschool mom who sees the end of that career drawing to a close very fast. And it has been my career! I may not have a degree in education (I actually did begin one and planned to teach elementary school but that's another story), but I have loved teaching my boys...most of the time. 

I have three years left in which to direct the education of my youngest son. It will be the first time in quite a few years that I have only one child to homeschool. Needless to say, given that he will be in 10th grade, it will be a bit different than when I was homeschooling my oldest in the elementary years. 

I'm going to enjoy these last few years to their fullest while I figure out what's next for me. 

Time Flies

Youngest without the hat. Middle son with the hat.

I just began my 17th year of homeschooling last month. I find it heard to believe that it's been that long. I started when my oldest son was only five years old. He's now 22 years old and in his third year of college. So yes mamas, homeschool kids do go to college and do well there too! He currently has a GPA of 3.34. (<---proud mama bragging a bit)

This year I currently have a senior in high school as well as a freshman. My freshman, is tall and he loves it. Especially now that he's officially taller than his older brother - at least one of them. 

Down to two boys at home

Homeschooling now is vastly different than it used to be even a couple of years ago. Most of the time I am simply the "scheduler and guidance counselor" rather than the teacher. I don't spend a lot of time in direct instruction anymore. My boys are now pretty independent. 

My senior this year is taking two classes at a local college. He started dual enrollment last year online. It has definitely changed things but he will end up starting college with about 18 credit hours completed. This is going to be a huge cost saver for him as he is planning to get a bachelor's degree in Aviation. This child of mine wants to be a pilot. In fact, he is currently doing his ground school class as part of his dual enrollment. Even with the state paying for his tuition for this class, it still ended up being a bit expensive. The entire program is on the most expensive at our state university. I'm thrilled that they have the program though. It's still new and the only one in our state. He will start flight training for his Private Pilot's license in the spring - hopefully. It will all depend on funding of his flight hours. He's determined though. He's been dealing with learning how to best use his time this year between college, homeschool, and work. This November he will be celebrating one year at his job. We started working with him on a budget last year and I have every confidence he will succeed and do well. 

My youngest isn't quite sure what he wants to do. We're still doing the basics here at home, but I've been contemplating having him try out the local tech center to explore some career options. They do a "sampler" program for ninth and tenth graders. We're considering trying that for next year. The only downfall to this program is it's located in the next town over - about a 20 minute drive. He won't have his license yet as he won't turn 16 until 2020. This means I'll need to drive him or at least ride with him as he drives. I'm sure that will be his preferred method. My oldest still doesn't have his license yet either and will be moving home this December to hopefully transfer to the college in that same town. Mom taxi will be in full force!

Homeschooling at its best

Back to my oldest though...this child of mine has thrived so much at college. He's really begun to come into his own and I'm super proud of him. Not only is he doing well there, but he also started his first job this past summer. My very introverted child is now a cashier at the local grocery store and is getting great reviews on his customer service skills. Mamas in the trenches...hold on. They do grow up and they do become productive members of society if we encourage them to find those skills. 

My oldest in his journalism class. 

They had a local TV reporter come speak to them. 

He's on the far left, back row, full beard. 

Homeschooling has been tough over the years, I won't deny that. There were days when one or all of us were in tears over a tough lesson. However, it's been worth all the sacrifice of staying home and investing into my boys. I don't regret one moment of it. I'm blessed and thankful that I had this opportunity. I'm just a bit sad that I'm starting to see the end draw ever nearer. Not to sound to route, but mamas, enjoy the moments. All of them. The hard, the fun, the messy, the sad, the frustrating - enjoy it all because it will all be over sooner than you realize. 

Favorite Homeschool Resources for the Elementary Age

Now that my children are almost grown and gone...okay not really. However, my youngest is now 14 and will be starting high school in the fall. While it may seem like yesterday that they were all gathered round the table working on their lessons, it's been years since that's happened. More often than not these days they disappear to their rooms to work in relative peace and quiet while I putter around doing household chores and working on my own thing. 

This morning I started thinking about all the great things we used to use when my boys were small to teach and learn together. These are still things I recommend to folks today when they ask me for my favorites. I do have more, but these are my top five in no particular order. 

Five in a Row

Now in all honesty, I tried Five in a Row (FIAR) when my oldest was about six or seven and really didn't like it. This was also when I had first started homeschooling so I was still in the "must-do-everything-listed" mode. Once I broke through that to homeschool freedom and tried this again with my youngest when he was about six, I loved it! The base for each unit is a well-written classic children's book. Some of our favorites were Make Way for Ducklings (culminated with a trip to Boston to ride the Swan Boats and see the statues) and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. It's called Five in a Row because you read the same book each day and then do activities based on it from math to social studies to science, picking and choosing of course which ones to complete. There is also a Before Five in a Row series for preschoolers and a Beyond Five in a Row for children ages 8-12. The base series is geared towards children ages 4-8. I only wished we had started it sooner.

Story of the World

This mainstay of homeshooling history has been around since 2001. I started using it with my oldest. Occasionally over the years I thought about switching, sold off my sets, and bought something new only to sell off the new and go back to Story of the World (STOW). It's a great series for young learners as it gives an overview of world history in bit-sized pieces. I always recommend getting the corresponding activity guide as well and not just the story book. The guide gives all kinds of great support for each chapter. It includes things like narration questions, lists of corresponding literature, maps (my boys loved these), and well, activities to make it hands-on learning. They also have the storybooks on audio. True confession, one year I borrowed all four volumes on audio from the library and we listened to them while we ran errands. That was our history for that year!

 

Explode the Code & Beyond the Code

This was a source I used once my boys knew how to read to some degree. It's a great way to teach phonics and reading comprehension. Although, I never used Beyond the Code with my kids, it's one of those great resources I didn't discover until after my boys were too old for it! However, the Explode the Code series is excellent.  The books are numbered and should be done in order. Don't get tripped up by the 1/2 numbered books, ex. 1-1/2, 2-1/2. Do book 1 and if your child is still struggling with what was taught, then do book 1-1/2. If they grasp the concepts well, move right to book 2. The 1/2 books are for extra practice. We used some and others we skipped. I typically had my kiddos do a couple pages a day. And since I was more concerned with them learning to read the actual words, I would typically cover the photos so they couldn't guess the answer. That's what worked best for us. So how did I teach them to read so we could get to this point? 

Alpha-Phonics

This book was pivotal in my homeschooling. I started home educating my kids with my oldest when he was only five. He had some developmental delays so we were waiting to start him in "real" school until he was six. I took this bonus year to try out this homeschooling thing and see if it would work for us. This was in 2001 and most people I talked to used How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100EZ Lessons. I found that book to be anything but easy! I thought I had to use all of it - the reading and the writing portion. Did I mention my son was five with developmental delays? Yeah, every single lesson had one or both of us in tears. Thankfully I had a very wise homeschooling mentor who spoke some profound words to me one day, "You don't have to do all it. Don't do the writing then." Really? That was definitely life-changing, but the book still wasn't working. Then I had another great friend who offered to lend me a copy of this book. I used it to teach all three of my boys to read. It's easy and simple. That's what I love about it.

Enjoy Life!

This resource is free and easy to use. Don't get so caught up in the curriculum that you forget to explore the world around you. Go outside to play. Go on as many field trips as you can manage. Take time to just enjoy each other. Read books. Climb the mountains. See the sites. The best thing I did when my boys were small was to go on as many adventures as we could. Use the time in the car to listen to quality audio books. We used to listen to Adventures in Odyssey, Jonathan Park, Christian Heroes: Then & Now, Lamplighter Theater, and The Extraordinary Adventures of G.A. Henty. In fact, my boys still listen to quite a few of these! 

Find those resources that help make learning at home more of a joy than a chore. If something doesn't fit or feel right, look for something better or different. The biggest benefit of homeschooling is customizing an education that fits your family. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: There are no affiliate links included. I'm just sharing some of my favorite resources. 

PureFlix and Homeschooling

(Click to see larger.)

Have you heard of Pure Flix? They are a Christian streaming movie company that carries family-friendly and wholesome entertainment. I was recently contacted about sharing about their educational and homeschool friendly titles they carry. Make sure to click on the graphic above to read my three tips for homeschooling!

You can check out all their educational titles HERE and learn more about their homeschooling supplements HERE.

I have used lots of videos in the past to supplement our learning. My boys usually enjoy them. I've used movies to supplement science and history. It helps bring it alive. One of my favorite things to do is to read a book and then watch the movie adaptation and compare them. And that reminds me, I read Sign of the Beaver out loud to my boys not too long ago. I think we need to watch the movie soon.

Curricula Choices 2016-2017

It's been quite a few years since I've shared what we use for curricula. This year I have a tenth grader and a seventh grader. I am an eclectic homeschooler. We use curricula from various companies at various levels and work where my boys are in their abilities. It's worked for us for fourteen years so we continue.

My 10th Grader:

He will be doing a few of his classes online through Virtual Homeschool Group (VHSG). If you've never heard of VHSG it's an online co-op that offers free classes. It's growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, it grew so much this year that only "early seating" families (those that volunteer to teach, grade, or build classes and/or donate money towards the cost of the servers) were able to enroll in live classes. They do offer "at-your-own-pace" science and math classes that anyone can use and it looks like their "Book Masters" classes will also open for AYOP this year as well (literature studies). 

My 10th grader will be using VHSG for the following classes:

• Algebra 1 - using Saxon math
• Spanish 1 - using Destinos
• Government - using Notgrass (1st edition not the new 2016 edition)
• Chemistry - using Apologia 2nd edition (which can only be purchased used these days)

I used Saxon when I first started years ago with my oldest son and didn't really like it. We have used all kinds of different math programs over the years. We're heading back to Saxon because it's what VHSG uses and he can attend a live class four days a week as well as go to open office hours if he runs into trouble. Math confuses me. Numbers don't make sense to me so all of this makes me very happy!

Spanish 1 will be using an online program. Although, the students do have a textbook and workbook to use as well. It's actually designed for college level and there are 52 lessons. However, for high school, they will do the first 26 this year and call that Spanish 1 and next year they will complete it for Spanish 2. He will also be attending a conversational Spanish hour through VHSG to practice even more.

Government is only a half semester program. In the spring, he will utilize VHSG once more for the Notgrass Economics course. 

Last year he did biology through VHSG and it worked out very well. He does all the book work through the group and our local homeschool co-op did all the experiments. We will be doing the same set up this year. Our co-op will be doing chemistry. This works great for me as all I have to do is schedule it for him. Although, I am correcting lab reports for VHSG chemistry. I also added in a middle school chemistry book, Exploring the World of Chemistry, that he is going through quickly. However, I felt it would give him a very good overview of chemistry that he can then delve into with the Apologia book. 

Off-line he will be doing Notgrass' Exploring America (2007 edition) program. Once he completes this he will earn a credit in history, a credit in English (literature and composition) and a credit in Bible.  I had actually planned for him to do Rod & Staff English 9/10 this year but dropped it (he doesn't even know this yet) once I realized it would end up being too much for him. However, he will still be doing Writing Strands to beef up his writing skills as well as Rod & Staff Level 8 spelling (his last year to do this). 

I also added in Rod & Staff's Level 9 reading comprehension for him this year. I felt it would be good practice for future standardized tests as we have never done a reading comprehension program before. 

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My 7th Grader:

Just like his brother, my youngest will be taking some classes through VHSG as well. He will be taking: 

• Fit-It Grammar: The Nose Tree
• Saxon Math 5/4 - actually using the 2nd edition
• Apologia General Science
• Conversational Spanish practice

I switched to Notgrass for history for this kiddo as well. We will be going through their America the Beautiful program. This program covers geography as well as literature. It's harder than he's used to but I think we've finally gotten over the issues we had when we started last week. He seems more diligent in getting it done.

He is also doing Rod and Staff Spelling (Level 4), English (Level 5), and reading comprehension (Level 5). His work load increased dramatically this year and he's finding his rhythm. Well, that and we had a rather heated "discussion" about stepping up. He tends to have difficulty in focusing so that will definitely play a role for him this year. 

He will be doing Writing Strands as well as a handwriting book this year as well. Lastly, he is doing math practice online using XtraMath, learning how to type with a free online program, and Spanish using Rosetta Stone. 

This year he will be learning how to focus better when it's time to do schoolwork and making sure he is diligent about completing everything given him to do daily. 

My boys also participate in our weekly Youth Group on Sunday nights, karate twice a week in the afternoons, and weekly music lessons. Both boys play two instruments. They both play the piano. My middle son also plays the drums (yes, we have a drum kit in our basement) and my youngest plays the violin. We also participate in our local homeschool co-op on Fridays. Needless to say, it can sometimes be a lot but they continue to step up.

Visiting the Titanic

There is a great new place in Portland (well, it's been there about a year I think) called the Portland Science Center. They have exhibits that come in and stay for a few months so something new is always there. The first one they ever did (that I heard about) was Body Worlds. The first one we went to, back in April, was one about space and robots. At that exhibit, we were told the next one would be about the Titanic. I was pretty excited about checking it out when it came in.

When we arrived, we were all given a boarding pass. The pass contained information about a real person on the Titanic. At the end of the exhibit, they had lists of all the passengers who survived and those who didn't. It was a great way to make this whole exhibit a bit more real to those of us going through it. 

Throughout the exhibit, we could see the differences between the classes. This was also true at the end when we saw who survived and who didn't. Here are the differences in the menus for each class. 

And even in accommodations...

First class

Third class

Tour of the Blaine House

At the beginning of May our homeschool co-op was able to take a tour of the Blaine House. This was actually the first time my family & I had been inside. The Blaine House is the Governor's Residence. My husband and I had attended a picnic there a couple years ago for an event he was invited too.

The tour only covers the main floor due to the fact that the second floor is where the Governor and First Lady reside. As a result, the tour is very short. The biggest reason it's taken me so long to plan a trip here is due to the restrictions placed on groups.

As homeschoolers, we are a packaged deal. Typically any group contains moms and multiple kids. The Blaine House only allows five adults to attend per group but up to 25 children. As you can see, we didn't even come close to that child limit. This was the first group that went, but we had to have two time slots due to the adult limit. However, it worked out well.

We were given a brief talk about the history of the house and how it became to be owned by the State of Maine. It was originally intended to be passed down to the son in the Blaine Beal family. However, he was killed in France in World War I. As a memorial to him, the family donated the house to the state.

State events are still held inside. The parlor is rather large as is the state dining room. Although, I have to admit, the room I liked best was the study and not just because of the bookshelves. Mr. Blaine was friends with Abraham Lincoln. On the desk there was a pass given to Mr. Blaine to travel during the Civil War signed by Abraham Lincoln.

Visitors to tours first start here. 

Although, during state events this room 

(which spans the length of the house) is used for receptions. 

The Study

The framed wallpaper? Mr. Blaine wanted his study to look just like Mr. Lincoln's and so he patterned it after it. The paper in the frame is authentic, it is from Mr. Lincoln's study. The room was matched to it. I think the moms appreciated all of this just a bit more than the kids.  

Pass signed by Abraham Lincoln

All the little details throughout the house were amazing. The woman who gave our tour talked about cleaning the rooms so I have to assume she works in a capacity of more than a tour guide. She was very knowledgable about all the various items and the history behind the house. 

Cool Messy Art Project

I'm not sure how many "messy art" classes we've gone to over the years but it's quite a few. We've been doing these classes since we lived "up north." Now that we live further away, it's still worth the drive to me to take the boys. Only my youngest wanted to go this time so we headed north to have some fun.

As always, Karen had a fantastic plan for the kids. We were told it was a "sculpture" class and to bring "gloves" because we would be using "prickly" stuff. We were all very intrigued to arrive and find Karen had moved the classroom outside. It was a glorious early spring day (re: no bugs yet!) and it was wonderful to stand and chat with the other moms. Because, that is the real reason we do these classes - homeschool mom support! Not really, that's just a great side benefit. 

So the project. It was super interesting. My son is holding his finished piece and I took no other photos so I will do my best to describe it.

Karen had a rack of old t-shirts for the kids to pick from. They needed to pick fabric for the back and front of their project. Then they needed to cut out roughly 8-1/2 x 11 pieces from the shirt - anywhere they wanted. My kiddo chose a black shirt with this design on the front. We used that for the inside of his project and plain black for the outside. 

The secret to this project was hardware cloth. If you don't know what it is (as I didn't before this class), it is essentially meshed wire that is rather flexible and lightweight. Once the fabric was cut, the kids used paste to cover the cloth. Then they made a "t-shirt sandwich" with the hardware cloth between the t-shirt material. 

That's not the end though. They were also given paper and told to make a design. A box, a spiral, anything. Then once they had a design, they used wire cutters to snip the cloth covered hardware cloth into that design. I was glad my kiddo opted to make a very simple box/tray. We only needed to cut in about an inch on either end and then bend it up. 

He decided to use duct tape - camo of course - to wrap around the all the sides to add to the design and to help the box keep its shape. 

Once again, a total win in the "messy art" department. My favorite thing about these classes is that Karen just explains to the kids what they need to do and gives them help as needed, but just lets them create and explore with minimal interference. This is why we moms like it too. We can visit for the 90 minutes we are there while are kids get in some "fine arts." 

We go back next week for another class. All we've been told is it will be using wax and a "blow torch." The boys are pretty excited to see what that's all about!